“It shows you, when we rebound the basketball, we've got a chance to win games. Our offense will keep us in it. Our offensive chemistry is still not where we want it to be, and it usually never is at this point of the year. But we played very intense, very focused defense. And very intense, very focused rebounding. Against a much bigger, physical team than we are.”

OSU, improving to 3-0, advances to Sunday's 5:30 p.m. championship game against North Carolina State, which beat UMass 94-76 in the other semifinal.

Le'Bryan Nash and Marcus Smart each scored 17 points for the Cowboys and Markel Brown added 13, although that was a side story to what played out on the floor.

Known as a rugged and tough team and one of the SEC's top squads, the Volunteers had scored 42 points in the paint, while attempting just eight 3-pointers in their first-round win over UNC-Asheville.

Against the Cowboys, Tennessee managed but 10 points in the paint and was forced into firing up 23 shots from the arc, where they made but five.